Frame for traveling-bags



S. DRESNER.

FRAME FOR TRAVELING BAGS.

APPLICATION FILED AUG.27{I920.

1,384,433. Patented July 12,1921.-

A H A Mm A Z Z Qianpue/Dre M" UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

SAMUEL DRESNER, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOISQ FRAME FOR TRAVELING-BAGS.

Application filed August 27, 1920. Serial No.r406,502.

To a]? av/aom it may concern:

Be it known that l, SAMUEL DRESNER, citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Frames for Traveling- Bags; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same.

My invention relates to traveling bags, its general. object being that of providing simple and effective means for normally interlocking the hinged frame portions with each other so as to accomplish the three purposes of reducing the strains on the hinges, of strengthening the traveling bag when closed. and of preventing an accidental opening of the locking catches by undue strains on the hinges. More particularly, my invention aims to prvide simple means for interlocking the companion hinge portions of a traveling bag frame at the upper corners of the frame, and to accomplish this by equipping one of the frame portions with means affording shoulders for normally holding the adjacent corner portion of the other frame part against downward movement. Still furtherandmore detailed objects will appear from the following specification and from the accompanying drawings, in which p Figure 1 is a perspective view of the frame F of a traveling bag embodying my invention,

with the outlines of the bag shown in dotted lines.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section through the same frame taken from the correspondingly numbered line in Fig. 4:.

3 is a similar section through such a frame when not equipped with my invention, showing the effect of strains in moving the frame portions out of their normal positions.

Fig. 41- is a fragmentary elevation of the outer of the frame members, taken from the medial plane of the bag when the latter is opened.

Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical section through the frame of Fig. 1, taken along the correspondingly numbered line in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of one of the metal. shoulder pieces used in equipplng an ordinary bag frame of the illustrated type with my invention.

Specification of Iletters latent. PatentedJuly 12, 1921".

In traveling bags of various types, such I:

as the socalled Gladstone? or railr'oad? types, it has long been customary to use frames consisting of two parts which respectively border themouth portions of the two halves of the bag when, the latter is opened. These frame portions usually are covered with leather in a manner too well known to requireillustrating here, and con sist essentially of U-shaped members hinged to each other at their free ends. these frame membersusually are ofan angular section, with oneweb of the angle ex: tending flatwise along the surfaceof the bag when the latter is closed and with the other webs disposed vertically of the closed bag. Moreover, one of these frame portions is usually of such a size as'to .fit snugly within the other when the bag is closed, so that the first named webs of the two halves Both of I meet flatwise against each other and co.-

operate in effectively stiffening the closed bag, thereby making theulatter better able to withstand roughlhandling. Furthermore, the smaller or normally inner of the i said frame members usually carries a pair of loops adapted to be engaged by movable catches 011 the outer frame member for latching the bag. i

In practice, this frame arrangement has the disadvantage of being inadequate, to the resisting of downward strains coming onthe half of the bag to whichthe said inner frame portion is permanently connected, and this disadvantage is particularly noticeable where the hinged connectionsrbetween the two frame parts consist of links connecting Y Y the free ends of these frame parts. For example, Fig. 3 shows an outerframc portion 1 pivoted at its lower endto a link. 2, which in turn is pivoted to thelower end of the inner frame portion 3.. With, the frame parts thus connected, it will be. obvious that" a downwardstrain on the part 3,with re spect to the part lqwill and to tilt thelink 2 out of a horizontal position, thereby moving the upper web 40f the inner frame portion downwardly or away from'the upper web 5 of the outer frame; portion.v Such a relative movement of the frameparts not only places undue strainonthe material ,of. the bag, but with manytype's of la-tchesalso tends to unl'atching the fastenings. Conse quently, if the bag happens to be heavily loaded in the half connectedto the inner frame portion, the resulting strains may a loss of the contents of thebag and to a damaging of the latch portions which project outwardly when thus unfastened. Fur- V thermore, when the frame portions are thus moved out of their normal closely adjacent positions, they no longer cooperate n strengthening each other, so that the bag 1s greatly weakened and much more likely to be damaged when subjected to the rough handling for which teamsters and baggage men are noted.

"Tdavoid such occurrences, my invention aims to provide means for interlocking the two frame members so that they cannot be relatively moved after the manner of Fig. 3, and preferably for effecting this interlocking at the upper corners of the frame where the impact strains on the frame are apt to be severe. According to the embodiment of the drawings, I accomplish this purpose by equipping the outer of the frame members withauxiliary webs or flange portions extending parallel to portions of the outer web of this frame member, these auxiliary web members being so spaced from the said outer web portions as to snugly house the adjacent web portions of the outer frame member. That is to say, I equip the outer frame member with parts which effectively form channels for housing adjacent web portions of the inner frame member. For example, I

4' may do this by forming two shoulder pieces ofsheet metal each of which shoulder pieces consists of a'fiat base 6 carrying an arch portion 7 which extends at right angles to the said base as shown in Fig. 6. I then fasten the base 6 of each such reinforcing member flatwise to the vertical web 1 of the outer frame memberby any suitablemeans, such EIS'I'lVBtSB, and do this in such a manner'that the arch portion 7 will be spaced from the inner surface of the outwardly directed' web of the saidframe member by a distance closely approaching the thickness of the outer web 4: ofthe companion frame member. Consequently, the arch portion? of each reinforcing member or shoulder piece cooperates with the adjacent corner portion of the web 5 of the outer frame member in affording a channel adapted to be entered by the corner portion of theouter web .on the inner frame member, which channel snugly houses the said corner portion of the web 5.

With the parts thus arranged, it will be obvious, particularly from Figs. 2 and 5 that y the said corner pieces will resist strains that tend to move the inner frame member with respect to the outer frame member while the bag isjclosed,sothat a movement like the one illustrated in Fig. 3 will be positively prevented even with an'unduly heavy loading I o'f 'the half or. the bagto. which the inner frame is connected. I am therefore able b0 reduce the strains on the frame members, to make the two halves of the frame cooperate efiectively in strengthening each other when the bag is closed, and to prevent any relative movement of the frame members such as might snap the latches open. However, while I have illustrated and described my invention as applied to a traveling bag frameemployinga particular type of hinge, I do not wish to be limited to this or-other details of the construction and arrangement here disclosed. Obviously, numerous additions, omissions or other changes might be made without departing from the spirit of my invention or from the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a traveling bag frame, a pair of hingedlyconnected U-shaped angle members formed to be received one within the other, and a pair of devices having vertical bases secured to the corners of the outer member and having arched parts arranged approximately at right angles to the bases and spaced from the adjacent parts of the corners of said outer member, the free edges of the arched parts being formed to abut the adjacent vertical face of the inner member and to engage the other inner face of the inner member at the corners thereof so as to limit the extent of telescopic movement of the members and to hold the inner member against downward movement.

2. In. a traveling bag frame, a pair of U-shaped angle members hingedly connected to each other at their ends and formed to be received one within the other, both members having arched corners and the arched corners of the one member being concentric with those of the arched corners of the other member when the frame is closed; and a pair of metal stiffeners mounted on the outer of the said members; each of the said stiffeners having a base secured to a normally vertical part of the outer of the said members and having an arched part concentric with an arched corner of the outer'member and spaced from the last named arched corstiffener is disposed for resisting strains oblique to the shanks of the U-shaped members. V

Signed at Chicago, Illinois, August 23rd, 1920.

' SAMUEL DRESNER. 

